


the arrow and the aim

by ishta



Series: the arrow and the aim [1]
Category: Figure Skating RPF, Olympics RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 20:07:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15979550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishta/pseuds/ishta
Summary: ‘Can you believe you’ve been living here for two whole months and this is the longest conversation we’ve had?’ Scott asked suddenly. ‘Sorry about that, I’ve been busy.’-or, tessa really needs a place to live





	the arrow and the aim

**Author's Note:**

> no one asked for this, and yet here we are.
> 
> this hasn't been proofread because i'm lazy and tired but anyway.

 

_Sorry girl, no room here – I’ll keep an ear close to the ground tho! Xx_

Tessa groaned. She’s never getting out of here. She’d been holed up in her parent’s home for the better part of a month, and (apparently) her options were wearing thin. She should have known, moving back to Ontario halfway through the year meant that nobody was really looking for housemates until their leases were up at the end of the year. She’d spent the last few weeks frantically texting everybody she knew in Toronto to no avail. She had even tried some former dorm-mates from Western University. She groaned, trying desperately to think of a way out of her parents’ house.

And sure, living under Kate’s roof had its perks. She never had to cook, the air-con worked, she didn’t have to pay rent, and no one was going to judge her for sleeping past ten. But Kate had her eye on her every movement. She was rarely left alone, which irked her to no end. She understood it, of course, why her mother was so worried about her, but she was _better_ now.

Tessa was twenty-six and, after eight years, she’d moved _back_ into her parents’ home.

 

-

 

‘So, when were we thinking of getting a job?’

She _always_ did this, Tessa thought. The royal ‘we’. Kate’s specialty.

‘Soon,’ Tessa grunted around a mouthful of toast. She knew the conversation was coming, she just wasn’t quite expecting it around the breakfast table.

Thankfully, Kate just nodded, but Tessa saw the apprehension in her eyes before she looked down at her mug of coffee. She was careful not to scoff at her mother as she ran upstairs to get changed for her run.

She knew Kate was worried about her, it was very unlike Tessa to be immobile for so long. She always loved to keep herself busy, but after everything, Tessa just needed this downtime. She just wished the downtime didn’t have to happen at her childhood home.

Tessa really fucking needed a place to live.

 

-

 

It was another two weeks before anything popped up.

Tessa had been tasked with buying flowers for one of her mothers’ friends, who was recovering from something or another. Tessa hadn’t really listened, just pounced at the chance to get out and do something without strict supervision. She was examining the market bouquets meticulously (much to the frustration of the poor merchant, who was trying to serve multiple customers around her) when her phone buzzed in her back pocket.

_Heard you were looking for somewhere to live?_

She blinked at the numbers at the top of the screen. It wasn’t a contact in her phone.

 _Excuse me?_ , she typed back, slightly weirded out. Surely it was one of her old college friends who’d received the message from someone else.

Suddenly, her phone started buzzing. Tessa reluctantly swiped the little green icon across the screen and held the phone up to her ear.

‘Hello, you’ve called Tessa Virtue.’

‘Oh, hi! Tessa, hello, I’ve heard absolutely nothing about you other than you need a room, right?’

Tessa blinked, then noticed the queue behind her for flowers and sheepishly smiled at the vendor, before shuffling over to find a seat.

‘Um, I’m sorry. Who is this?’ she asked, dropping onto a picnic table she found nearby.

‘I’m Kaitlyn,’ the phone replied, ‘I used to live with Meagan. She said you might’ve appreciated a call? My roommate has decided that LA is the place to be, and she’s just dumped a three-bedroom rent on me and my other roommate. You still need a place?’

Tessa blinked. ‘I do….’

‘Great! Well, you have my number and I have yours so I’ll let you know where we go from here!’

A million questions buzzed in Tessa’s mind and she didn’t even know which one to ask first. She didn’t even know if this Kaitlyn even lived in Toronto. But Kaitlyn had already hung up, and Tessa still _really needed a place to live_.

 

-

 

As it turned out, Kaitlyn lived in a charming three-bedroom apartment on the third floor of a very conveniently located complex in downtown Toronto. The weekend after their very abrupt conversation, Tessa had agreed to drive up and check out the room she’d accidentally agreed to. And it was lovely.

Large enough for at least a queen sized bed and a reasonable portion of Tessa’s wardrobe, the room was freshly painted and had plenty of sunlight. The apartment itself was very open, and Tessa instantly fell in love with the small patio that overlooked a nearby park. Kaitlyn had kept the main areas tidy, or she’d at least cleaned them up for Tessa’s visit, but everything seemed organised and neat. Rent wasn’t too bad either; within Tessa’s initial budget.

Kaitlyn was studying part-time, and teaching ice-skating to tots at a nearby rink. She’d taken the day off to host Tessa, and they ended up spending the day exploring (at least on Tessa’s part) the local eateries and shops. Tessa was surprised at how well and how quickly they’d gotten along. They were about the same age, had similar interests. Kaitlyn also seemed to sense Tessa’s hesitation, and had obviously gone out of her way to make her feel comfortable, which Tessa largely appreciated.

‘So, you can move in whenever you like after next Monday,’ Kaitlyn said over coffee on Saturday afternoon, ‘rent will be due the week after that, so no pressure really.’

Tessa nodded furiously, flicking through her planner.

‘Scott said he didn’t mind who moved in, either, so we don’t have to worry about that.’

Tessa’s eyes flicked up to look at her across the table. ‘And he’s… a good roommate?’

Kaitlyn smirked. ‘He’s the best. Very low maintenance, he works a lot. Lovely guy, though. Shame he’s not around this weekend, he’s gone home to see his family for a few days. He needs it though; he’s been running himself ragged trying to cover the cost of the extra room.’

Tessa nodded, and circled next Monday in her planner with a red pen.

 

-

 

Kate, as it happened, was sad to see Tessa go, but glad to see her leave. She’d hugged her mother, filled her car to the brim with suitcases and books, and turned to say her final goodbye. Her mother gave her a sharp kiss on the cheek, and held out a wrapped gift, which Tessa graciously received.

‘Now, get a job,’ Kate said, brushing her fingers lightly through a piece of hair that had fallen out of Tessa’s high ponytail. Tessa smiled sheepishly, opened the gift and let out a sharp laugh. She was holding a _Four Ingredients_ cookbook that her mother had some time previously deemed ‘too advanced’ for Tessa.

‘Please, _please_ , look after yourself Tessa. If you need more time, you can always come back and stay here.’

Tessa nodded, blinking away an unexpected tear. ‘I’ll be fine. A change in scenery will be great for me, I think.’

Kate gave her a closed-lipped, but warm, smile, her hands coming up to cup her youngest daughter’s cheeks. ‘Love you, Tess.’

‘Love you too, Mom.’

 

-

 

Kaitlyn, as it happened, was an amazing roommate. Courteously quiet in the evenings when she got home from late-night classes, and was always careful to tidy her textbooks from the dining table when she was done with it. She cooked too, which Tessa _loved_. Kate still texted her every afternoon at 5 to remind her to eat.

It didn’t take Tessa too long to find a job, either; she’d started working as a business consultant for a small publishing firm a few blocks away from her apartment. Her mother was _thrilled_ ; it was Tessa’s first job since everything, and it was even in the industry she wanted to work in after she graduated college.

Mostly, she was just glad to have time to deal with things outside of the watchful eyes of her mother. Tessa’s new roommates didn’t know her from _before_ , and therefore couldn’t ask her the difficult questions of why she wasn’t going back.

 

-

 

The first time Tessa met Scott wasn’t noteworthy. She was moving all of her stuff into her new room, on her own since Kaitlyn was in class all day. After the fifth trip up, Tessa realised that living on the third storey was not going to be super fun. Especially when hauling up boxes of books in the dead of summer. She was sweating, exhausted, drenched through her Adidas tank top, and probably dehydrated.

Glancing around at the piles of boxes in her room, she collapsed onto the mattress (which was still sitting on the floor; the bedframe that she’d ordered online was three days late), and decided she deserved a quick break. It was about then that she heard a knock on her already wide open door.

She perked her head up and met the hazel eyes of who she imagined was one Scott Moir.

‘Hi,’ he said with a wide grin, ‘I’m Scott.’

‘Tessa,’ she’d said, tiredly. She held out a hand from her bed but made no effort to get up. He laughed, and walked over to the mattress on the floor, shaking her hand.

‘Is this everything, or do you still need some help?’ he asked, gripping her hand firmly. His eyes were darting around her barren room, settling on the four large suitcases in one corner that she knew failed to hold even a third of her wardrobe.

She moaned. ‘Still stuff to go, don’t remind me’. He laughed again, and Tessa decided she liked his laugh.

‘You stay, I’ll grab it. Slept through my run this morning anyway, could do with the exercise.’

‘Marry me,’ Tessa said, collapsing back onto the bed. ‘My keys are on the dining table, I think. It’s the little blue car parked outside in the no-stopping zone.’

Scott snorted, ‘Yes, Ma’am’. He went out to the dining hall. ‘They’re not here, you sure they were here?’ he called from outside her room.

She clenched her eyes shut, realising they were actually in the back pocket of her denim shorts.

‘Actually no,’ she called out. He appeared in her doorway, eyes still crinkled into a soft smile. She fished the keys out of her pocket and threw them in his general direction. He caught them deftly and turned to leave.

‘Thank you!,’ she remembered to call out as she heard the front door open.

 

-

 

She really didn’t see much of Scott, at first. Kaitlyn was right – he was _always_ working. He coached skating at the same place as Kaitlyn, but he also held down a bartending gig at a local sports bar. Basically, he worked all day, half the night, played hockey now and then, then slept whatever time was in between. She sometimes saw him in the mornings as she was leaving for work, but, as she was _always_ running late in the mornings, they barely even had the chance to say hi.

In the early days, she saw much more of Kaitlyn, who by July was gradually getting much (much) more stressful as the summer term exams approached. Tessa had learnt to just stay out of her way when she was going through her textbook aggressively highlighting and note-taking in the margins. Which meant Tessa spend a good amount of time in her room, reacquainting herself with her favourite books, and designing high fashion dresses at the tiny desk she’d purchased online a few weeks ago.

She was fine with that, even if she was a bit lonely.

 

-

 

Tessa loved Toronto, and Toronto loved Tessa. The weather had eased up since the awful heat of her moving in day (thank _fuck_ ), and had settled into a beautiful warm. Evening runs were pleasant, and she’d found a nearby coffee shop that always had an iced latte ready for her on her way to work. She and Kaitlyn had caught a couple Blue Jays games, and she was getting along great with the people at work. In fact, work was going amazingly for Tessa, who managed to slot right into the corporate world as if she were born for it.

Some nights were still hard, and she sometimes had to push herself to finish her runs or walk up the third flight of stairs in her building, but Tessa was proud of herself.

 

-

 

One night that Tessa was having particular difficulty sleeping, she heard a bang from out the living room. Scrambling out of bed, she opened her bedroom door tentatively to find Scott sitting on the ground near a dining chair that she deduced he’d tripped over.

‘Scott? You good?’ she whispered from her doorway, aware that Kaitlyn had an exam tomorrow and needed to be well-rested.

‘ALL GOOD, T!’ he called from literally five metres away from her.

She urgently shushed him, padding over to where he sat on his ass. He leaned over to rest his head on the chair, and she crouched next to him, eyes squinting in the dim light given by the streetlight outside to make out his features properly.

 _Drunk_ , she realised, recognising the sour smell on his breath.

‘Up,’ she instructed, hooking a hand on his arm and pulling him upright. He slowly made his way to his feet, and consequently stumbled forward slightly into her. She grabbed him by both forearms and pushed him back to steady him. She’d never seen Scott drunk before, had rarely seen him at all. But she had two older brothers and knew exactly how to deal with this.

‘Ooof, sorry T,’ he chuckled, swaying slightly on the spot. She walked him over to the sofa and sat him down. She looked over at the clock on the wall, her eyes having adjusted to the half-light, and saw that it was slightly after 1 in the morning.

She didn’t have work the next day, it was her day off, so she made a decision.

‘Stay here,’ she instructed, turning back to her room to throw on the clothes she’d set aside the night before for her morning run.

‘We’re going for a walk, Scott,’ she said, returning to the sofa. She held out a hand, pulling him to his feet. She grabbed her keys and wallet from her handbag and pulled him behind her.

He wasn’t so drunk that he didn’t know what he was doing, thank God. He followed beside her silently, as the pair walked down the street. It was still warm out, but Tessa made sure her hands brushed his as they walked to make sure he didn’t do anything brash in his semi-haze.

‘You going to tell me what you’re doing drinking a keg on a Tuesday night? I thought you had work tonight, Scott,’ she said eventually.

He mumbled something under his breath.

‘What was that?’

‘Got fired, Tess- _a_ ,’ he spat.

She stopped walking abruptly. He jumped a little, but stopped beside her.

‘Okay, do you want to calm down?’ she asked, turning to look at him. His eyes were cast downwards.

‘Sorry,’ he said. It sounded sincere, she thought, and considerably less drunk.

She nodded once, then turned to keep walking (slowly, though, to make sure he followed). For a few more minutes they walked, and she knew it was having a sobering affect on Scott, who remained silent, but stumbled less as they approached a 24-hour Tim Hortons.

‘Alright, in we go,’ she said, putting a firm hand on his lower back and pushing him into the shop. He seemed surprised, but went in, finding a sofa chair in the window and sinking into it.

She went up to the counter and came back with two lattes. She watched him carefully as he pulled at an errant thread on the chair, mumbling a thank you for the coffee.

‘So… fired, huh?’ she asked, bringing the coffee to her lips.

‘Yup,’ he said. The walk had done a good job sobering him up.

‘Going to tell me why?’

‘I punched a guy,’ he said simply, placing his thumb-nail between his teeth.

She blinked. _Wasn’t expecting that_. She eyed him until he fidgeted, waiting for her story. He dropped his hand.

‘He slipped something into a girl’s drink. Like a young girl. We shouldn’t have been serving her anyway, I think. Anyway he put something in it while she wasn’t looking so I punched him. Unfortunately for me, he’s a regular. Manager didn’t like me punching a regular, I guess. Hope the girl’s alright.’

She blinked again. ‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry. That _sucks_ Scott.’

‘Yeah. Hence, drunk.’

She nodded, taking another sip of the coffee, not really knowing what else to say. They sat there in silence for a few more minutes, watching the bored barista clean and re-clean the counter.

‘Can you believe you’ve been living here for two whole months and this is the longest conversation we’ve had?’ Scott asked suddenly. ‘Sorry about that, I’ve been busy.’

‘Oh, no, it’s fine,’ Tessa murmured, ‘you’ve been busy.’

 

-

 

After that, she saw a lot more of Scott. He didn’t work nights anymore, so he wasn’t as tired all the time. His job at the rink had the same hours as her job, so they were both home at night at the same time when he didn’t have hockey. They both saw a lot less of Kaitlyn, who decided that the flat was too crowded now for her to study in, so she’d taken to studying at ‘the library’.

‘The Library’, of course, was code for Andrew’s, her new boyfriend, who was only fleetingly mentioned in passing when Scott commented that she usually hated spending so much time alone.

‘I have a right to know things, Kaity,’ he’d said casually one night, throwing a can of beer at her from the doorway of the kitchen. ‘If you’re shacking up with _my_ hockey team, I think I should get to know the de- _tails_.’

He’d said it salaciously, in a way that was rarely comfortable unless you’d known the person for a long time.

Tessa found herself slightly jealous of Kaitlyn and Scott’s friendship. They had known each other since Kaitlyn’s first year of college, and had been living together since then. Not to mention they worked at the same place, and had a whole world there that Tessa wasn’t a part of.

They knew each other so well that they just ebbed and flowed perfectly. She never saw them argue, never saw them so much as make a snide comment. She liked to tease him about things Tessa didn’t even understand, and Scott would always bring home knick knacks from the rink that Kaitlyn found hilarious.

It was fine, though. Tessa was fine.

 

-

 

The first night it happened since Tessa moved to Toronto was a warm night, the worst kind of night for sleeping. She’d been dozing restlessly, waking up at the slightest sound of a rustle outside. It was the sort of close heat that required an open window to ensure the movement of air at all times, which, unfortunately for the restless sleeper, meant that all the sounds of downtown Toronto wafted into the bedroom.

Tessa was in that hazy realm between sleep and wakefulness, when suddenly a pain, an unspeakable, explosive, _torrid_ pain, swept over her. She sat up abruptly with a loud cry, eyes clenched and sweat beading over her forehead. She was trembling, she knew she was, but she could do little to stop it as she pressed her teeth together and tried to breathe through the pain throbbing through her. It did no good, and the pain continued to increase the longer it throbbed. She let out a small whimper, which may not have been as small as she thought.

A crash at the door made her look up quickly. Scott stood there, bare-chested and wild-eyed, looking at her from the door.

‘Tess?’ he asked, carefully.

Through the obscurity of the pain, she knew what she must have looked like, crying in the middle of her oversize bed in the middle of the night, hands clasped tightly around her knees as if trying to contain the cramping, unbearable pain coursing in her blood. She let out another small cry before pressing her forehead to her knees. She knew the drill, knew she needing to contain and control her breathing as much as she could to try and shift focus away from the pain.

She moaned when she felt a warm and heavy hand on her shoulder-blade, its fingers pressing hand into her upper back.

‘I’m fine,’ she grunted, breathing heavily. The hand on her shoulder squeezed harder.

‘What can I do? Can I help?’ he asked, quietly.

Tessa was obviously in too much pain to think clearly, because she showed him exactly what to do to help. Reaching out for his hands, she pressed them to her legs and showed him just the right amount of pressure to relieve the cramping.

He was a natural, she thought, or at least an experienced sporting coach. He knew instinctively the right pressure to relieve, but not to further pain her. Gradually, the intensity of the pain wore off, and her breathing returned to regular. He didn’t stop running his hands up and down her bare legs, though he relieved the pressure somewhat. They sat in a mildly uncomfortable silence, when Tessa realised that her breathing had subconsciously synched to his.

‘Does this happen a lot?’ Scott asked, tentatively, his hands coming to rest atop her knees.

 ‘Y-yeah,’ she stammered, slightly uncomfortable, ‘I’m sorry I woke you up. You have work in a few hours.’

He shook his head. ‘Nah, I was awake,’ he said with a small grin. She knew he was lying, but she nodded gratefully anyway.

‘Thank you,’ she said, quietly, her eyes boring into his in the almost-darkness of the room. ‘Anytime,’ he murmured, squeezing her knee carefully. He got up slowly and returned to his room, pausing to turn and look at her again in the doorframe of her bedroom.

She sighed heavily the moment he left, realising that the pain could even touch her Toronto, and her blood ran cold.

 

-

 

Tessa was sitting at the dining table one night, painting her nails, a new release from her publishing company open on her kindle in front of her. Kaitlyn was at Andrew’s again, which had become routine, so she was home alone when Scott got home from work. He smiled at her, and wordlessly placed a take away coffee cup in front of her on his way to the bathroom to have a shower.

It wasn’t until later that she realised he had memorised her coffee order.

 

-

 

She got to know Scott fairly well. She learnt that Cassie, the girl whose room she currently occupied, used to date Scott. He’d told her this very nonchalantly, but she saw him biting his nails straight after, which she’d come to learn meant that he was not telling the full truth.

Later, she’d learn that Cassie leaving was why Scott worked so much. She went from girl-next-door to nightmare, clingy, manipulative girlfriend, to aspiring starlet. He had to work so much to stay out of the house.

Tessa found herself secretly grateful that Cassie never made it in LA.

 

-

 

 

He was her best friend, she realised, somewhere around the sixth month of living in Toronto. He’d text her stupid pictures during the day, just to make her laugh. He’d come home and ask her about her day, about what she was reading. He would sneak behind her while she was on Skype with Kate, or her sister Jordan, and make them laugh just as much as he made her. They would wait for each other before watching the next episode of some Quebecois soap opera they’d both become obsessed with.

He’d text her around 3pm most weekdays, asking what she wanted for dinner, and come home with the ingredients to cook it. Kaitlyn would roll her eyes; ‘Princess Tessa’s just running this house now. Look out Scott!’. Tessa would always laugh along. Kaitlyn could be so dramatic. Its not like she ever ate there anymore anyway. She had better things (boyfriends) to do.

It made Tessa realise she never had friends like Kaitlyn and Scott before, and that answering that call at the market was the best thing Tessa had ever done.

 

 

-

 

One freezing Sunday afternoon, Scott and Tessa were huddled on the sofa together, making fun of some Lifetime movie showing before a Blue Jays game. It was an easy enough movie to mute and talk over the top of, and they found themselves deep in conversation. Tessa was amazed how easily she and Scott could just talk. It could be about anything; he engaged with anything she had to say, and always _always_ listened.

‘So that’s how I got into teaching,’ Scott said, not taking his eyes off the screen. ‘Mom needed a hand around the family rink and her friend works at this one. Simple as that.’

Tessa nodded, sensing that it wasn’t simple as that, but not wanting to press him.

‘So how about you? You expect me to believe you grew up in Canada and never learned to skate?’ he asked, turning off the television and turning to look at her.

‘Umm, no, actually. I skated until I was about fifteen…I had to quit when I started full-time ballet,’ she said, monotonously. She was aware that this particular facet of her life had never come up, and she hadn’t really ever wanted it to.

‘Full-time ballet?’

‘Um…yeah,’ she said, hoping he’d get the hint and drop it.

He didn’t.

‘Wow, you must be pretty good then. T. Full-time at fifteen?’

She nodded wordlessly. He realised something was up about then.

‘Hey, the game starts soon, I’ll order us something to eat’. She smiled at him gratefully, nodding and reached for her wallet.

‘It’s on me this time, Moir.’

 

-

 

It was later that same night, surrounded by empty noodle boxes, sitting side-by-side on the sofa, that Tessa decided to just go for it.

‘I was too injured to keep dancing,’ she murmured gently, mindful of the silence that had drifted between them since dinner. The Jays were up by 2 in the seventh, and the game was all but over.

He looked over at her in surprise, laying a hand on her knee. ‘You don’t have to,’ he said.

‘It’s fine. I was too injured. I took two years off to see if I could get my college diploma in that time. Turns out I could, but coming back was a bitch. Going from zero to a hundred does that, I guess.’

Her voice was empty, a void. She’d learnt to detach herself from speaking about her injury, like reading from a script. He still looked at her intently, not pushing her to keep going, but making sure she knew he was listening. He stroked her knee lightly, and she realised he’d never moved his hand away.

‘It needed surgery if I ever wanted to dance again. And, _God_ , I did,’ she said, smiling slightly. ‘But the surgery didn’t go well, so no more ballet.’

She’d skimmed over the gorier details of her injury. The indescribable agony of stretching her toes to pointe. Her shins feeling like they would literally explode as soon as the stood up from lacing her shoes. The hundreds of hours spent in ice baths to try and contain the swelling of her legs after just an hour of practise. The sleepless nights where her legs would throb and throb and throb until she couldn’t bear it, and it sent her spiralling into a panic. She knew it wouldn’t have shocked him to hear; he’d seen the worst of the panics, had massaged the pain out of her legs more than once now. But, something kept her from disclosing  _everything_ about her injury. Almost like she didn't want to scare him off.

‘Hey,’ she heard Scott whisper from beside her, pulling her out of her daze. He reached a hand up to her cheek, wiping away a tear she hadn’t realise had fallen.

He was so close, she realised, her heart plummeting to her stomach. She could just tilt her head forward slightly and their lips would be brushing. He seemed to realise that too, though, and pulled back a bit.

‘I’m selfishly glad you hung up the tutu, kiddo. Then I wouldn’t have a best friend to cook for.’

She gave him a watery laugh.

‘There it is,’ he murmured, stroking the corner of her lips, trying to coax a wider smile. He got one.

 

-

 

Tessa spend the next month or so trying to focus on anything but his lips. It was difficult, really, once she’d noticed how full they were.

Another thing that was difficult to avoid focusing on were his hands. Scott was a very tactile person; he liked to fold Kaitlyn tightly into a hug when she came home excited about an exam score. He liked to flick Tessa playfully in the nose when she laughed too loudly at a joke.

She also noticed that, as his hair grew longer, it fluffed buoyantly over his ears. She had to resist the urge to tuck pieces behind his ear when he sat beside her at the breakfast bar with freshly slept-on hair.

Really, Tessa just kept noticing little things about him that she didn’t really notice before.

She found herself wondering what he was like in bed. Whether he was as playful, as tactile. He probably was, she decided. Not that she’d ever know.

 

-

 

Tessa accidentally fell in love with him. She didn’t really see it coming. It was unremarkable, really. It was a random day, as he came home with a paper bag full of vegetables and bread, dropping them unceremoniously on the counter. He leaned over Kaitlyn, her head buried in a marketing textbook, and kissed her lightly on the cheek and dropped a chocolate square into the fold of book. He then turned to Tessa, who was lying on the sofa, still in her work clothes, huddled under a woollen blanket watching a rerun of an old sitcom. He leant over the back of the couch and grabbed her hand, placing an identical square of chocolate in her hand and playfully kissing her ear, before turning towards the kitchen to make dinner.

‘Thanks, Scotty,’ Kaitlyn sighed from the dining hall.

 _I’m in love with that man_ , Tessa thought, suddenly, naturally, and as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

-

 

The problem was, Tessa didn’t know how to be in love with someone. She couldn’t tell him, _obviously_ , because he would probably laugh at her and then get sad about Cassie or something. She also had a fatal fear of rejection, and was enjoying having a best friend too much.

She figured she could tell Kaitlyn, but, honestly, she didn’t know if she trusted her not to turn around and tell Scott anyway. Plus, Kaitlyn might have something to say about the dynamics of sharing a house with someone you’re secretly in love with, and Tessa can’t deal with the lecture. _Plus_ , Kaitlyn had already lived through sharing with Scott and Cassie, and Tessa doubted she’d be ready to deal with anything remotely similar to that again.

She couldn’t tell her mother, no way. She’d make such a big deal out of it that she would probably cry. And, God bless her, but Tessa is pretty much done with her mother doting so much on her. Thanks but no thanks.

So, Tessa realised, the only person she could tell was Jordan. So she did.

Jordan squealed, predictably, and it was hurting Tessa’s ears even through the tinny sound of her aging laptop.

‘I knew it, Tess,’ she said, the sound coming through the speakers slightly out of sync with her mouth moving. ‘You’re always so cosy with him and he _loves_ you, I can tell.’

Wait, what?

‘He doesn’t love me he - ’

‘He does.’

‘He couldn’t get away quick enough when we nearly kissed the other night,’ she said, cringing slightly form the memory.

‘Nearly _kissed?_ ’

‘Jordan,’ Tessa said, seriously. ‘What am I going to do? Do I have to move out?’

‘What? Fuck, _no_ , little sister. You are going to stay right where you are, and plan the perfect seduction. We’ve studied our whole lives for this.’

Tessa wasn’t so sure re-watching the _Dawson’s Creek_ boxes-et three times in one summer counted as planning to seduce her best-friend roommate that she decided she kind of wanted to fuck, so she decided to play the long game, waiting it out. She’d never been a first-move kind of girl, anyway.

 

-

 

He still came to her room every time she woke up in the middle of the night, her teeth clenched from bearing the pain that woke her. Without fail, he came to her room and encouraged her through it. Every _fucking_ time.

 

-

 

Everything kind of happened the day Tessa got a promotion.

She came home, bursting through the front door, finding Kaitlyn and Scott sharing a bottle of wine at the dining table while something that smelt delicious was cooking. They both looked up at her in surprise, given how she usually quietly slipped through the front door after a full day of work.

‘They’re promoting me!’ she’d said, rapidly, a wide smile on her face.

Immediately, her two roommates jumped to their feet to hug her from either side.

‘Congratulations, kiddo,’ Scott said, his biceps squeezing her arms against her. Kaitlyn was on her other side, looking like a proud mother.

‘Cause for celebration,’ she announced, going into her room and bringing out a bottle of expensive-looking champagne.

The three of them had ended up drinking enough that they decided to do more drinking at a fancy bar downtown. Several vodka-cranberries later, Kaitlyn and Tessa found themselves stumbling (gracefully) over the bar’s dance-floor, giggling when they’d accidentally crash into other patrons. Tessa noticed Scott watching them with a soft smile, holding a beer out to her as if to celebrate her, before lifting it to his lips.

Kaitlyn’s phone buzzed and she gasped, flittering off to surely find Andrew who had just arrived, apologising profusely and drunkenly to Tessa. Tessa laughed and waved her off, shouting slightly obscene comments about Kaitlyn’s very active sex life.

Scott wandered over to take Kaitlyn’s spot, placing a gentle hand on her upper-arm. ‘Mind if I cut in?’

She looked up at him wide-eyed.

‘Of course not,’ she said, holding out her hands for him to take. Her eyes wandered down his body. He looked _good_. He’d thrown on a khaki button down and dark jeans before they’d left to go out. Since they’d arrived, he’d pulled the sleeves up to reveal his forearms, which, and Tessa groaned at the realisation, was just another part of him that she’d have to try and ignore.

But, she noticed, he’d looked down at her body too. She was wearing a white long-sleeve top with mesh panels, tucked into a skin-tight pair of black jeans. Tessa _knew_ she looked good, had heard it several times from the sleazy men standing towards the front of the bar, but it flooded her with warmth to realise Scott had noticed it too.

They danced close for a bit, Scott’s hands remaining modestly on her waist. He was a good dancer, Tessa realised, though she didn’t know why it surprised her. Scott pulled his phone out to read a message that had just buzzed through and rolled his eyes, showing Tessa. Kaitlyn had texted, telling them to stay out for maybe one, maybe two, hours more while she ‘shows’ Andrew their apartment.

Tessa smirked, until a guy behind her bumped into her. He turned around to shout out an apology over the loud music, but she was too preoccupied to pay attention. She found herself chest-to-chest with Scott, their eyes almost level in her heeled boots.

Scott watched her intently, his breath warming her nose. She looked up at him, butterflies creating a tornado in her stomach.

Suddenly, in an act probably fuelled by the amount of alcohol coursing through her blood, she pushed herself forward, pressing her lips firmly to his. It was short, sweet, lovely, and when she pulled back he was looking at her with surprise, but his eyes definitely clouded over with a molten shade of hazel she had never seen before.

‘I’ve wanted to do that for so _fucking_ long, I don’t even know,’ she panted out, her lungs feeling like they were constricted.

Scott said nothing, he just lifted a hand to her face, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. With what seemed like great restraint, he bent forward to press another gentle kiss to her lips.

‘Me too,’ he whispered to her eventually, and the warmth of his breath was setting her alight. He ran his hand down her waist to her ass and pulled her further into him. ‘So fucking long,’ he echoed, crashing his lips back to hers.

 

-

 

Through the haze, one of them realised they couldn’t go home yet because _Kaitlyn_ had kicked them out.

‘Fucking Kaitlyn,’ Scott growled into the side of her face, kissing her cheekbone, her forehead, her nose, back to her swollen lips.

They’d somehow found their way into an ambulant bathroom, after one too much jeers from the dance-floor started to make them feel mutually uncomfortable. As soon as they shut and locked the door, Scott had pressed her up against one of the walls.

‘I never thought - ’

Tessa was cut off by the urgent press of his lips to hers.

‘Neither,’ he grunted, his hands pulling at her thighs until she wrapped them around his hips, trapped between his chest and the wall. She ground into him as he lowered his lips to the junction of her throat and shoulder, sucking hard, drawing out a low sound she didn’t think she’d ever made before. His hands pulled her top out of her jeans, and he placed a wide hand on her sternum, fingers teasing the bottom edge of her bra.

They could just fuck here, she realised. Nothing was stopping them. And she’d wanted this for _so_ _fucking long_ , and her body was going to kill her for what she was about to do.

Tapping him gently on the shoulder, he withdrew, and she let her legs back down onto the ground.

‘Scott -’

‘Tess -’

They spoke at the same time, huffing a small laugh at each other. He stroked a thumb over her cheekbone.

‘Not in a bar,’ she murmured, closing her eyes and sinking her face into his hand. He nodded, before leaning forward to steal another kiss, which she received enthusiastically. Soon they were pulling at each others’ clothes in a frenzy. His hand found its way to her thigh again.

‘Okay _fine_ ,’ she moaned, her hands fisting in the shoulders of his soft linen shirt, and her leg lifting to wrap around his waist, ‘in the _fucking_ bar.’

 

-

 

Neither of them had work the next morning, thank _fuck_. Tessa curled up in her bed, frowning at the intruding sunlight from the blinds she’d forgotten to close when they’d gotten home the night before. Clenching her eyes shut, she pulled the duvet over her head, trying to ignore the pounding headache that was refusing her further sleep.

When the bed dipped beside her, she peeked out. Scott placed a mug of coffee on the bedside table, and was waiting for her patiently to pull the blanket back.

‘Can we talk?’ he asked. He didn’t sound tired or sick or hungover or anything. She groaned.

‘Yeah,’ she said, somewhat shyly, pulling back the covers and sitting up. He placed the mug in her hands.

‘Last night…was that…a thing?’ he said, his eyes drawn to the base of her neck, where a large purple bruise was blossoming. He didn’t sound awkward about it, she thought. He sounded genuinely unsure.

‘A thing?’

‘A…thing. Y’know. A real thing?’

‘It really happened, if that’s what you mean?’

‘Tessa,’ he warned.

In response she leaned over and kissed the corner of his mouth lightly.

‘I’d like it to be,’ she whispered into his skin. Scott just watched her as she placed the coffee back on the side-table. He closed his eyes, and she realised her mistake. She felt the flush spread over her face and neck before the floodgates even opened.

‘It doesn’t have to be,’ she rasped quickly, cursing her voice for breaking on her. ‘We can pretend it didn’t happen, that’s so fine. It was super messy, right, and we were drunk. And I wouldn’t hold you to anything you said last night, like, and oh _God_ the coffee was an apology coffee. Fuck, Scott, you’re at just as much fault as me so don’t start anything but, oh god, I don’t want to move. I just -’

She paused at the look on his face. He was staring at her intently, frowning slightly. His hair looked perfectly fluffy in the morning light, and she longed to comb her fingers through the bit that stuck up out of the right side of his head.

‘You’re not moving,’ he said firmly, leaving no room for discussion. She opened her mouth to respond but no words came out. He reached forward and grabbed her hand from where it lay fisted in her lap.

‘Do we have to pretend it didn’t happen?’ he asked lowly, his thumb lightly brushing a circle on her hand that flooded her with warmth. She watched him carefully, his molten hazel eyes imploring hers. He gently brought her hand up to his lips, and pressed them against her lightly. She shivered, despite herself.

‘Tessa,’ he whispered against her knuckle, his eyes flitting up to meet hers’, ‘I’d wanted you for so long. Last night was just…everything, T.’

She shivered again, her mouth falling open slightly. ‘So I don’t have to move?’ she asked tentatively, her voice a low murmur.

‘God, no,’ he said, wrapping a hand around her neck and pulling her into him. He pressed his lips against hers firmly, and then folded her into his arms, pressing his face into the top of her head.

‘What about Kaitlyn,’ she whispered into his shoulder.

‘Oh, I don’t think she’ll be a problem. I think Andrew will be asking about her living arrangements soon anyway.’

 

-

 

‘I’m so glad you moved to Toronto,’ Scott murmured into her hair one night the next week, his arm wrapped over her chest as they were spooned in her oversized bed. The previous night, he’d had to hold her and rub her until the pain, and her tears, subsided, but tonight she’d felt no pain as she wrapped herself into him and settled into the plush of Egyptian cotton that covered her bed.

‘Me too,’ she whispered back to him, tilting her head down to kiss his forearm, ‘so much’.

 


End file.
